Originally Posted by
Espada III
I flew in and out of EDI on a business trip last week. I was astonished at the lack of security separation between arriving and departing passengers, the crowds in the departure lounge, the complete mess of a car rental 'village' with far too many cars and people in real danger of being run over and the ridiculously long walk to the gates on the SE pier.
Compared to almost all overseas airports I have been through the UK are very poor.
The mixing of pax is not really a security issue as it is only ever domestic inbound mixing. They are all screened to the same level as EDI outbounds.
That said...the whole layout of the terminal is not fir for the modern age. Making the passengers walk through departing crowds is unprofessional and causes needless congestion. Not to mention the fact that as a direct result of the departure lounge having literally an open door to the outside world, no one is able to transit EDI from international to international without having to clear UK border force. Not only is this a terrible passenger experience but is also, to the best of my knowledge, unique as most other major UK airports have the ability to transfer from non-UK to non-UK without having to clear immigration. The fact that many people doing so are non EU citizens mean there are often missed connections because they have to wait upwards of an hour just to then walk back out into the check in hall and clear security again using central search.
That simply must be improved as the airport claims there is a 1 hour transit time, it just cannot be realistic if you're going, say, DOH-EDI-JFK or AMS-EDI-JFK for example. If the airport is serious about getting US Pre-Clearance then they will have to seriously step up their game as the Americans will need dedicated areas and gates to go from at the very least.